Man snapping photos of protestors at Christie town hall says he's a state policeman

It appears members of the media weren’t the only people at Gov. Chris Christie's town hall ready to document the appearance of any protesters crashing the event.

When at least a half dozen protesters began disrupting Christie’s South River event a plainclothes individual who later identified himself as a member of the New Jersey State Police was spotted snapping pictures of the protesters.

The individual didn’t identify himself by name, but said he was a member of the State Police after he was asked if he was with either the local police agency or State Police.

The man snapped pictures of the protesters as they stood up and shouted at the governor and also took pictures of the hecklers as they walked past him on their way out of the event.

http://www.politickernj.com/72088/plainclothes-cameraman-snaps-pictures-protesters-chris-christie-town-hall

and the Star-Ledger had this take:

Is Christie going 'Nixonian' on his critics? Editorial

What's with the reports of an undercover state trooper snapping photos of the protestors being kicked out of Gov. Chris Christie's town hall Tuesday?

This plainclothes paparazzo identified himself as a State Police officer to members of the media. But it seems nobody else will confirm or deny it.

The governor's office is referring all questions to the State Police, where a spokesman said he couldn't immediately confirm whether or not the man works for his agency -- and had no response to state Sen. Loretta Weinberg's charge that this was a "Nixonian tactic."

So either Weinberg is being paranoid -- as in her whole crazy theory that Christie's operatives shut down local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in September as political retribution -- or this is exactly what it looks like. An attempt to intimidate the governor's critics.

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/03/is_christie_going_nixonian_on_his_critics_editorial.html#incart_river_default

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